On this day in 1858, pioneer Mormon leader Lyman Wight, determined to lead his people back to the North following a premonition of the coming Civil War, died near San Antonio. Wight, born in...(Read More)

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CLEMENT, SIMON ERASMUS

CLEMENT, SIMON ERASMUS (1820–1895). Simon E. Clement, Texas legislator, was born September 28, 1820, in Oxford, Granville County, North Carolina, son of Simeon and Elizabeth A. (Yarbrough) Clement. The family moved to Tennessee early in S. E. Clement's life, eventually settling in Lexington, Henderson County, where Simon grew up. Clement was educated in the Henderson area until he was twenty years old, then he moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where he attended lectures at Louisville Medical College. From 1842 to 1843 he continued his medical education at the Marine Hospital of Louisville. Clement moved to Texas in 1843, settling near the Arkansas border in what was then Red River County. Dr. Clement fell ill upon arriving in northeast Texas, but following his recovery he established a medical practice near Clarksville. In 1846 Simon Clement married Rebecca C. Robbins.

In 1850 the family moved to Paris in Lamar County. Clement established himself by selling medicines, and later he expanded his business into a successful mercantile. A Whig before the Civil War Clement opposed secession, but he contributed to the Confederate cause. Dr. S. E. Clement is listed as a private on the muster roll of the Ninth Brigade of the Texas State Troops. In 1863 he was elected as a Democrat to represent Lamar County in the state legislature. He remained a Democrat for the rest of his life. Clement lost goods and capital during the war as well as accumulating debts, but following the end of hostilities he rebuilt his dry goods trade, repaid his creditors, and reestablished himself as a prosperous merchant. In 1872 Clement, along with four other investors, founded the Paris Exchange Bank. It was chartered in 1874, and Clement was the president and cashier during its first five years of operation. Later Clement's two eldest sons took over its operation.

Simon Clement was a Mason and an Odd Fellow. He belonged and contributed to the Presbyterian Church as well as several charitable concerns in the Paris area, donating to ensure the construction of railroads, schools, and churches. S. E. and Rebecca Clement had three sons and three daughters. Dr. Simon Erasmus Clement died in 1895 and was buried in Paris at Evergreen Cemetery.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Biographical Souvenir of the State of Texas (Chicago: Battey, 1889; rpt., Easley, South Carolina: Southern Historical Press, 1978). William S. Speer and John H. Brown, eds., Encyclopedia of the New West (Marshall, Texas: United States Biographical Publishing, 1881; rpt., Easley, South Carolina: Southern Historical Press, 1978). Pat B. Clark, The History of Clarksville and Old Red River County (Dallas: Mathis, VanNort, 1937).